Opinion: The Great American Car Chase

“Furious 7” is making all the money at the box office and making grown men cry. It's the biggest movie in the country right now and it's easy to see why. Americans, myself included, love a good car chase. 

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have not seen the movie, yet. It's not that I don't want to (I do), it's the general lack of manners and decorum that has permeated our nation's movie theaters that keeps me away sometimes. If I could choose a super power, it'd be the ability to shoot lasers out of my eyes and weld shut the mouth of the guy who has mistaken the theater for his living room and is convinced that the rest of us want to hear his commentary. I'd use those same lasers to blow up any cell phone that was answered or used to read and/or send a text during a film. I take my movie-watching seriously. Now, back to the column...

What was I saying? Oh, yeah. Americans love to watch cars racing and crashing and stuff getting blowed up real good. That's the genius behind the whole “Fast and Furious” series. Put good-looking people in good-looking cars and let them drive fast and crash furiously and make it all really good-looking. BOOM! Box office gold. 

There have been car chases in movies going all the way back to the silent film days. The two films that set the template for the modern day car chase were “Bullit” with Steve McQueen and “The French Connection” with Gene Hackman. After people saw the intensity and felt the rush that came with those two high-speed and adrenalized chases, movies were never the same. In the 1970's while movies like “The Godfather” were raking in millions of dollars and winning awards, drive-in theaters across the South were showing low-budget, independent car chase movies. They were perfect for the drive-in, because the dialogue wasn't important. We just wanted to see a Chevy Nova jump a ravine. Then, in 1977, one of those low-budget, redneck movies hit paydirt.
   
“Smokey and the Bandit” was released the same year as “Star Wars.” I was in the third grade at the time and there has not been a more magical year for movies, since. At the end of the year, “Star Wars” was the number one movie at the box-office and of all time (“E.T.” would later become the highest grossing movie and in proof that things ain't what they used to be, “Titanic” held the title for a while only to be booted out by “Avatar.” Watched “Avatar” lately? Me either). “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” was number two and what was sitting right there at number three? “Smokey and the Bandit,” a movie that was nothing but a car chase for an hour and a half, with Burt Reynolds wearing a cowboy hat driving a Trans-Am, while Jerry Reed drove a semi and talked to a Basset Hound named Fred, and Jackie Gleason questioned whether his idiot son was spawned from his loins. It's my favorite chase movie of all time. And in 1977, America agreed with me.
   
Some of my other favorite car chase films:

“The Blues Brothers”-Some people call this a musical, but it's really a car chase that pauses for occasional music numbers.

“The Road Warrior”-Mel Gibson before he went insane, driving a semi-truck with a tank full of gasoline through the barren wastes of post-apocalyptic Australia while punk-rock marauders attack from all sides. 


“To Live and Die in L.A.”-Pre-CSI William Petersen in film by “French Connection” director, William Friedkin that features a car chase going the wrong way on a Los Angeles freeway.

“Death Proof”-The best modern day car chase movie, because Quentin Tarantino didn't use any fancy computer effects. He used real cars and hired real stunt men to drive and crash those cars. And it has Kurt Russell, who can make any movie, with or without a car chase, better.

Dan Rather once said, “Americans will put up with anything, provided it doesn't block traffic.” A lot of us will watch any movie, provided it's got a really good car chase.

Luke Williams was born and raised in western Kentucky. He decided to pursue a career in radio after his mamma told him that out of all her kids, he was the one that could "talk real good." In addition to radio, Luke has also worked in a boot store and a hardware store, so he can offer knowledgeable advice on insoles and hammers. You can hear Luke every afternoon on 93.3FM, WKYQ.